Sharing: 2017 Pilgrimage to Guangzhou

Several volunteers of St. Anthony’s Church and I organized a pilgrimage to Guangzhou to celebrate Asian Youth Day on Jul 28-29.The 7th Asian Youth Day is held in Indonesia on Jul 30 – Aug 6, 2017.

Thirty seven participants from Shenzhen including Fr. Lu, several volunteers and I left St. Anthony’s Church on Jul 28 evening.The pastor of St. Anthony’s Church Fr. Liu gave a welcome talk and led the prayer.Fr. Lu led the singing together.We stayed in a hostel because the rooms in Cathedral were not available due to the Children Summer Camp.There were another six participants went by themselves to Guangzhou, Seven of the youth group of Cathedral Guangzhou and eight of Catholic College Students Association (Jiezi Community).

We left for Our Lady of Lourdes’ Church Shamian after breakfast for Mass.Fr. Joseph gave introduction about Our Lady of Lourdes’ Chapel and their relic collection.

Fr. Lu led the opening prayer followed by blessing by Bishop Gan.The leader of Jiezi Community gave an introduction about the Cathedral followed by visiting the upper level of the Cathedral.

Ms. Zhou was the MC for the day.We had lunch and ice breaking games led by Mr. Hou followed by Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament led by Jiezi Community. Two participants read the message of Pope Francis for 2017 World Youth Day.I showed the video of 2017 Asian Youth Day Cross Procession in Jogyakarta and part of the video of Archdiocese of Semarang.

There were small group sharings.Only one small group shared to the large group, the rest shared it on the bus due to time limitation.

The last agenda was action song of Asian Youth Day theme song: Joyful Asian Youth.